In a bookstore on Friday afternoon, I was on the search for one item – a magazine. Flipping through the familiar pages and landing on my name brought everything Full circle; it brought me right back to where the wheels started turning.

When I was in high school, my Mom had a subscription to Fitness and I read through every issue. I had favorites – I wasn’t interested in the play by play strength routines that were too complicated to remember, or the skin products that would keep the (then non-existent) wrinkles away, or the eye shadow that would make my abs pop – I went right to the Food & Nutrition sections.

Some information was repetitive, but I always read the articles through and through. Not too long after officially deciding to attend Penn State, the article I had my eyes on quoted “a professor of Nutrition Sciences at Pennsylvania State University.”

….wait, what?? Professor of Nutrition?! As in, I could take Nutrition classes? Or there could even be a Nutrition Major?!

That quote opened up a double-door of options; my mind flooded with possible courses, and careers. I went into the Guidance Counselor on Day 1 and told her I would either major in Architecture or Nutrition. Clearly, she thought I was little nuts. The two have nothing in common, and take a completely different path. I took classes in both (and loved both), but obviously the latter wooed me in!

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I was asked by a Fitness Magazine Senior Editor, & author of the Nutrition Q&A section, to answer a few simple questions on baking substitutions. Obviously I was more than happy to do so, and sent them right in!

A few months later, here it is:

It’s a little surreal to see my name in print like that, bringing the whole process back to where it started. Now I know a quote is just the start, as I reach for the full-on article and keep the trend going!

******What got you started in your career or area of interest? What would you do to bring things full circle?

Thats so inspiring! I used to read Self magazine a lot and really liked those questions. My story is a little similiar… I’m a planner and wanted to know what I wanted to do with my life junior year of high school. All I knew was I wanted to make a difference, but I wanted to be passionate about what I did. I had always been interested in nutrition since I had tried dieting since I was 11. But this created a love/hate/really hate relationship with food and I wanted to recover. So I began to learn the real facts about nutrition and loved it! I was on FSU’s website one day when I saw that they had a Dietetics program. The more I read, the more excited I got! I’m currently a freshman with a major in Dietetics and can’t wait to see where this amazing journey will take me!

Yay! This is too cool. I love hearing the story of how you got interested in nutrition to begin with. I won’t say I regret majoring in Psychology but I would love to have taken the college-level nutrition courses. I’m currently taking a nutrition and wellness course through AFPA and soak up every bit of info.